This invention relates to shower enclosures and more particularly to an improved shower enclosure which provides ready access to a shower area such as a shower bath (i.e., a bathtub-shower combination) or shower stall, and which prevents water leakage from the shower area.
Confining shower spray to a shower area, such as a shower bath or shower stall, has been accomplished in various ways, one being by the use of a sliding shower curtain at the open side of the shower area. However, this system has several disadvantages, the most predominant of which is that shower spray tends to escape from the shower stall or shower bath around the side edges of the curtain. The tendency for water to escape is increased by the outward billowing of the curtain during use of the shower which causes the curtain to pull away from the walls and the area for escape of water to be enlarged. This results in wet, slippery floors and oftentimes damage outside the stall or shower bath. Also, shower curtains are particularly unsuited for use in shower stalls since the base of a stall is ordinarily constructed with very low sills which will not readily retain the curtain within the stall.
Swinging or sliding glass doors are also widely used as shower enclosures, but they also present certain problems. For example, such enclosures are expensive and even dangerous inasmuch as they are prone to cracking upon being closed too vigorously. Moreover, the doors themselves inherently limit accessibility to the shower area, a disadvantage particularly undesirable to a physically disabled person or to one trying to bathe a yound child. Mechanical problems with sliding (or hinged) doors can also arise.